3007 But wait, that's not all....

Thursday, July 1, 2010

“If women are expected to do the same work as men,
we must teach them the same things.”
-- Plato --

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A little excitement on Tuesday, on route 9w in Esopus. A dump truck driver towing a trailer carrying construction equipment (a paver and a Bobcat) missed his turn and decided to make a U-turn. He pulled over to the right shoulder and started the turn (how! Route 9w at that point is not particularly wide. I'd hesitate to try to turn Suzie there!). He didn't notice a truck coming up behind him, and got clobbered broadside.

But wait, that's not all. The truck that hit him was a fuel oil truck, carrying 3,000 gallons of fuel oil. The oil tank ruptured, spewing oil on the road, and the oil caught fire.

But wait, that's not all. Both trucks and the trailer were engulfed in the burning oil (the drivers did get out and away in time) and the heat melted them (I heard the Bobcat became an unrecognizable lump). The fire was so hot it melted the propane gas line under the road. Which proceeded to leak gas.

But wait, that's not all. A warehouse next to the road, the building served by the gas line, caught fire and burned to the ground.

But wait, that's not all. The warehouse stored fireworks (possibly illegal, since private fireworks are illegal in NY), which of course caught fire.

A little excitement.

The Hairless Hunk told me about it yesterday. He works with a volunteer fireman who had been there. Then Vic the mechanic told me about it, too. It was just up the road from Captain Vantastic's shop, and almost across the road from Vic's house.

Local newspaper article here: http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2010/07/01/blotter/doc4c2c1e12f1f6d769584005.txt

Very short video here (turn the sound down):

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6hxzy5XwUk&feature=player_embedded]
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1316 Dangerous Drivers

Friday, June 22, 2007

I've had several dangerous, frightening, or annoying experiences on the road lately.

Driving home from the village last Monday, a paramedic "fly car" came up behind me, covered in flashing lights, siren blaring. I don't know how it works in other areas, but around here, when someone isn't breathing, the fly car is sent out ahead of the ambulance, because every second counts. When Jay had his first seizure and we didn't know what it was yet, when I managed to force my way through the bathroom door to get to him, he was not breathing. The fly car made it here from Rhinebeck, normally an 18-minute drive in traffic, in seven minutes.

So when I saw the fly car, I immediately pulled over and stopped. I knew what it meant. (I was driving the handicap van - 4" of ground clearance - pulling off the road is dangerous to my undercarriage, but I risked it.)

The car ahead of me did not pull over! The speed limit was 40 mph in a no-passing zone with curves, and he/she continued potting along at 40. I couldn't believe it! He/she never did pull over, even when he/she passed a side road and several driveways. The fly car was unable to get past for more than a mile, until there was a clear passing spot.

I hope the medic radioed in the idiot's plate number. I was horrified.

Then, Wednesday, I had just parked on route 9, across from Piper's office, when I noticed the ambulance coming north on route 9, approaching the traffic light in the middle of the village. (The lights were flashing, but they're not allowed to use the siren in the village unless they have a patient on board and are headed to the hospital - which restriction I don't understand or agree with.)

It's an old village, narrow road, one lane north, one south. The light was red for north-south traffic, and the ambulance, lights flashing, was stopped behind several cars at the light.

I've heard that some places have some kind of radio doohicky whereby an emergency vehicle can push a button and turn traffic lights red both ways. Evidently we don't have it here . The east-west traffic continued to go through the intersection. Finally, the north-south traffic got the green.

Now, what should have happened is that the vehicles heading both north and south should have remained stopped. That would allow the ambulance to go around the cars ahead of it at the light and proceed north in an open lane.

That didn't happen. Not only did no one let the ambulance through, no one made any attempt to pull over, either! (No room to pull over in the village - which is more reason to let the ambulance through the light to an open road.) All the cars and trucks just went through the light like normal, and on up the road. Like normal.

I don't understand. What's wrong with people?

Then we get to yesterday. I was on route 9w just south of Port Ewen, heading north, at 3:25 pm, behind a long line of cars traveling at the speed limit. It was a passing zone. There was a line of oncoming south-bound cars.

The first of the oncoming cars was literally only a few yards ahead of me when I heard a whooshing sound to my left, and saw a car passing me at an extremely high rate of speed. My brain went into overdrive. There was no way she could get back into the north-bound lane in time. I was looking at a really bad head-on about to happen. She was going to hit the oncoming car, or, if she moved right, she was going to hit me. I slammed on the brakes and whipped to the right, off the road, and the woman also whipped right at the same instant, into the same spot my van would have been in had I not gone off the road. We're talking inches, here.

Let's just say I was pissed.

It was a black Nissan Sentra, NY plate number NXP2870. The driver was a youngish woman with streaked dark blond/light brown hair, sunglasses, and a mole or similar mark on the middle of her left cheek. I think it was a NY plate - the frame covered the words. Anyway, the plate was white.

I know from experience that reporting the incident to the police won't do any good because it's my word against hers, and there was no damage.

I heard somewhere that given the plate number, it's possible to locate the owner of the vehicle, with an online search. I'd like to write her a letter. Can't do it through the DMV (which actually is good - I wouldn't want weirdos getting my home address from seeing me pass on the street - I've had enough trouble with my address and phone number on checks - there are a lot of lonely shop clerks out there). There are several sites that promise, for $25, to find the owner given the plate, but I've had enough experience with that type of search site to know that the money is for a "membership", not for the information, so when they can't deliver, you can't complain.

I don't understand what made her do that. What's wrong with people?

I followed her through Port Ewen, and then passed her on the multi-lane section, where she potted along behind a large truck that had trouble getting up to speed after the lights. She didn't seem to be in such a big hurry then.
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1272 Further Info on the Thruway Accident

Tuesday, May 29, 2007



Found a news piece:

http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070529/NEWS03/705290330/-1/NEWS020



It probably won't be available forever, so here's the text:

Only minor injuries in fiery Thruway crash in Sloatsburg

By SARAH NETTERTHE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: May 29, 2007)

SLOATSBURG - No one was seriously injured in a Memorial Day accident that charred two vehicles and halted traffic on the New York State Thruway.

Jackson Julien, the driver of a tractor-trailer, said he was in the northbound middle lane about a mile north of Exit 15A when the driver of a sport utility vehicle attempted to move left from the right lane.

Julien said he tried to move into the left lane to compensate, but hit another car with his trailer. The truck jackknifed and crashed into the guardrail, taking the SUV with it, and burst into flames, sending plumes of black smoke high into the sky.

"The lady said she didn't see me," he said, referring to the SUV's driver.

Sgt. Christine Revella of the state police confirmed that the woman in the SUV "said she never saw a truck" and that police were going by Julien's account.

The northbound Thruway was closed for about an hour and was gradually opened.

Rockland Paramedic Services Capt. Bo Tunno said the woman, her husband and their child, who was about 2, were taken by Sloatsburg Volunteer Ambulance Corps to Good Samaritan Hospital.
The man and child were taken for observation, Tunno said, and the woman complained of pain in her right shoulder.

Tunno said Julien complained of pain on his left side, but repeatedly refused medical treatment.
"We attempted a few times," he said. "We almost had him in the ambulance once, but he did not want to go with us."

Instead, Julien paced the tandem trailer parking lot just south of the accident, watching the traffic and smoking a cigarette.

"I'm OK," he said.

A crew from the Ramapo Valley Ambulance Corps was the first on the scene. First Lt. Patrick McKiernan said the first thing he saw was a plume of smoke. The crash victims were out of their vehicles, he said, so they started triage, first under the tandem lot overpass and then in the lot itself.

"I think they were just in shock as to the whole situation," he said.

McKiernan said bystanders were told to get back into their cars and roll up their windows, as emergency workers didn't know what might be burning in the truck. [Silk edit - Um, no. I was only six cars back, and nobody told me to roll up windows.]

Julien said later that his trailer was empty.

Steve and Kim Leon and their two children were on the way from their home in the Bronx to a barbecue upstate.

They didn't see the accident happen, but were among the first cars stuck behind the emergency vehicles.

"We heard tires popping, debris flying," Steve Leon said. "Lots of black smoke.

"And we also witnessed cars zooming by it," he said.

Wagdi Gobrial and his wife, Mary, of Edison, N.J., were on their way to the Woodbury Common Premium Outlets when they drove up just behind the accident.

"When we got closer, we saw flames shooting up to the sky," Gobrial said.

Like many others trapped on the Thruway, Gobrial got out of his car and watched emergency workers, even taking the time to light a cigarette. Some drivers turned off their engines, while others left them running to keep the air conditioning on. Some climbed through sunroofs to get a better view.

Also on the scene were volunteers from the Sloatsburg, Hillburn, Suffern and Tuxedo fire departments.
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1270 Goodness gracious great balls of fire

Monday, May 28, 2007

I left NJ at 12:30 pm, heading north and home.

At 1:45 I was on the NY Thruway, just south of the Sloatsburg/Suffern rest area, when traffic, which had been moving along nicely, skidded to a stop.

I figured there had to be an accident ahead or something, when suddenly there were flames shooting up, about five or six car lengths ahead of me, and huge billows of dense black smoke. A tractor-trailer had hit a minivan, and both of them were engulfed in flames. I mean burning hard and fast! I don't know what the trailer's load was, but every minute or so there was an explosion.

Emergency vehicles started arriving within minutes. Eventually there were three fire trucks (engines!), two heavy rescue trucks, one ambulance, a dozen or two police cars, and a passel of blue-blinker cars. (I was interested to see the firefighters putting on their turnout gear AFTER they arrived. We were required to have it on before leaving the firehouse (well, at least the boots and pants).)

Gawkers also arrived within minutes. People from way behind me were leaving their cars and walking forward, and being chased back by the police. Me, I was fussing because I wanted to get AWAY, not closer. Who knows what was in that smoke. Who knows what was going to explode next. I don't need poison gases or shrapnel.

They put the fire out pretty quickly - well, they turned the smoke from black to gray to white fairly quickly, and eventually the fire was out. I figured we'd be sitting there for hours, but they let us by after removing the minivan, only one hour and 25 minutes of sitting. I snapped some pictures, but they're not digital, so it'll be a while.

When I passed the tractor-trailer, there was nothing but framework left on all but one side. It must have been a really hot fire to do that so quickly. The tires had burned/melted into the pavement, and the trailer was listing.

That ONE ambulance worried me. With a more-than-fenders motor vehicle accident, even if the people involved are walking around insisting they're fine, the rule is to arrive in force, check them out, slap a collar on them, strap them down, and deliver them to an emergency room, ASAP. Resistance is futile. (Well, you can sign a form that releases the rescue crew from liability, but they won't tell you about it unless you kick and scream.) Only one ambulance arrived, for two vehicles, and it didn't leave for a long time. That doesn't sound good.

I hope there's something on the news tonight about it.

The ramp for the rest area was only a few hundred feet past the accident, so when they let us go, I decided to stop and get something to drink. But as I turned into the ramp, I realized that there's 50 miles of bumper-to-bumper pissed off traffic behind me, and SIX CARS ahead of me!

Ack!

I zoomed through the rest area and back onto the road, and hit the gas. I had an open road ahead of me, and I was going to take advantage of it!

On the OTHER side of the road, people had actually stopped on the sides and got out of their cars to watch the fire. So with them, and the usual slow downs, south-bound traffic was at a standstill. Just for fun, I set the trip odometer. It was 15 miles of stopped, and 11 more miles of slowed cars. Can't imagine what it must have been like behind me.

While watching the fire, I had called The Man (went straight to voice mail) and then called FirstWoman and talked with her a bit. Her home was on the way, so she invited me to stop in and trade weekend news, so I did.

Got home about 6 pm.

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Well, the news is on. The big story is a boating collision on the Hudson near Catskill. A woman was injured. Then the newsreader swung into blather about Memorial Day barbecues. With no irony.

I guess Suffern is too far south to interest Albany. Or there's no video, and therefore it's not news.
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1181 Bonked a Car

Friday, March 23, 2007

Talked to Daughter and Hercules at 7pm. She's feeling a little better. She took a bath (she prefers showers, but she wasn't sure she could stand that long), and had been able to hold down water and saltines for a few hours. She said that when she called me at 2, she was very frightened by how weak she was.

Right after I got off the phone with them, I went to the deli, and backed into another woman's car. She was sitting at the edge of the road getting ready to pull out, and when I backed out of my space, I curved around and my offside rear bumper scraped along her offside rear bumper. I DID look, but somehow completely missed her. The Aerio has a very high rear end, and I guess the tail lights on her black car were below where I could see.

I now have some black paint on the side of my bumper, and she has white paint on hers. My car is otherwise fine, but the plastic cover over her tail light is broken. There are no other dents or scrapes on either car. (My first thought when I heard the crunch was "Oh %^&@! I gotta drive to Pa. tomorrow!")

Oddly enough, an off-duty town cop was sitting in his car in the lot and saw the whole thing, which actually is good, since nobody will exaggerate damage now. And the woman's husband owns a body shop in Kingston. He called this evening, and said he'd just charge for the part (assuming there's no internal damage, that is).

I don't intend to inform the insurance company.
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